I’ve blogged about Circus Flora before, I think it’s a magnificent troupe and I strongly urge anyone who can to see the show and to support the troupe. (I think that we’ll go ahead and give them a donation this year–maybe enough to be listed in next years program as Clowns.)

It was a whole lot of fun, and just what my malaise-ridden soul needed today. It’s really hard to hold on to your angst when you’re twenty feet away from a herd of miniature ponies dressed up like lions.

Other highlights include the always impressive Flying Wallendas, an amazing dog act featuring all rescue dogs, the Saint Louis Arches and a really hot couple doing an intimate aerialist act, beautiful and undeniable erotic–it was like watching a couple slow dancing, only vertical.

Earlier this morning I talked to friend of mine who is considering launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund a one man photography show, and told him that in my opinion he needs to wait and build a platform and some momentum first. I have studied crowdfunding a lot since my disastrous attempt to fund an audiobook version of Catskinner’s Book, and I’ve come to the conclusion that crowdfunding is a way to let the fans you have contribute to a project that they are interested in, but you have to start out with the fans and the interest.

After the circus we went out to dinner with my Ma, who is a freelance writer/editor/book designer and talked a little about the projects that she has right now.

So even though I wasn’t actively working on my book today, I’m still very much thinking about art and entertainment and marketing and all that.

2 Responses to To The Moon

Book/play/audio crowdfunding is always going to be tricky, because the nature of the product does not lend itself to being made bigger and better in small increments. Even offering several formats of the same product only really draws people who have a strong this-for-this, that-for-that, link between format and reading time/place.

With ebooks becoming easier to bookmark &c., and coloured e-ink on the horizon I can see the print copy level (one current way of adding a bonus for higher funding) becoming less attractive as well.

The real issue I see with finding a good incentive is it risks robbing Peter to pay Paul: if you offer a KS only version that is better than production copies (e.g. full colour full page illustrations) it will have stronger appeal, but also takes away the chance to sell more copies as a deluxe edition later.

Possibly this places crowd-funding in a mid-range slot: you cannot exploit it without an existing audience to both pay and convince others to pay; if you have a large audience that will buy your books anyway it might be better to borrow if you can and save the incentives to sell later.